In the 90’s, the national program“Nuestra Tercera Raíz” was founded by the National Office of Popular Cultures of the National Council for Arts and Culture. Promoted by anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, the program was coordinated by Luz María Martínez Montiel. She took up the task of annally organizing Afro-mexicanistas gatherings with the purpose of creating a space for the collection of studies on the subject and sharing of experiences during research.

This program was also dedicated to create expositions and festivals that were decisive in raising awareness and promoting the importance of Afrodescendant populations in Mexican culture. As part of the body of work that resulted from these gatherings, Luz María coordinated and published in 1992 a compilations of articles from many researchers which was titled La presencia africana en México. During her term as director of the program, she coordinated another 3 books on the subject of African presence in Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The term “third root” became important at the time as means to raise awareness about the African populations as part of the roots of Mexican culture. Nevertheless, nowadays, this term has lost validity since it has been proven that Africans and Afrodescendants were the second and sometimes, in certain regions, the first most relevant group in the Vice-Regal society.

Afromexican social organizations have been fundamental in the process to make the Afrodescendant communities visible. Among their demands, they petitioned to be recognized in the Federal and State constitutions as communities and populations with their own characteristics. Since 1997, in the town of El Ciruelo, Oaxaca, the Gathering of Black Communities has been taking place. It works as a space for the Afromexican communities of the region to gather, exchange stories and talk about the problems they face. Scholars and representatives of various governmental institutions used to assist to these gatherings to listen and give support to their demands.

To this date 21 gatherings have taken place, the last ones took place in Veracruz, Múzquiz, Coahuila and Mexico City. The objective is to become a national movement. Other groups and associations have also contributed by raising their voices, exposing the precarious economic conditions that most of these communities experience and by searching for projects that will strengthen the agency of said populations. It is important to mentions that in recent years groups lead by women have been created bringing to light the severe issues they suffer concerning gender violence. They demand public policies that will support them on this subject as well as actions actions to eradicate discrimination and racism. There is no doubt that the organized civil society has been decisive in raising awareness about the contributions to Mexico done by Afrodescendants; the eradication of racist ideas that lurk in the country through the promotions of human rights; the new sense of awareness the communities have for their history and the positive spread of their cultural expressions and cultural heritage.

Aside from the demands made by the Afromexican movement and the historical and anthropological research, many national and international contexts have made possible the constitutional recognition of the Afrodescendant populations in 2019. These efforts also made possible the inclusion of a question about self-identification as Afromexican or Afrodescendant in the Inter-Census Survey of 2015 and in the National Census of Population and Housing 2020.

In 1994, unesco, by Haitian and African countries initiative, created an international project: The Slave Route. The purpose of the project is to break the silence about the importance that the African diaspora and the Afrodescendant contributions have had in almost all the countries in the world. One of the first remarkable actions was the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which took place in Durban, South Africa in 2001. There they remarked on the relevance and the contributions of Afrodescendant populations around the world as well as highlighted the process of transatlantic enslavement as a crime against humanity. In 2011, the un declared the International Year for People of African Descent to which some governmental institutions joined in. The International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024 summoned the un member states to take actions and create activities that benefit the Afrodescendants and their communities, particularly the women and youth.

In Mexico, various political actions have taken place in the last years to favor these populations. In Oaxaca, Guerrero and Mexico city, their State Constitutions recognized the Afrodescendant populations and, finally in 2019, the National Constitution of Mexico recognized these communities section C, Article 2. Since 2015, a new question regarding self-identification as Afromexican was added to the Inter-Census Survey and, in the 2020 Census, a question regarding Afromexican, Black and Afrodescendant populations was also added. Although there is still much to do so that the rights of the Afromexican people and their communities are fully recognized, these measures have been vital to make public their contributions, concerns, and the need to eradicate discrimination and racism.